Stormy sky in Verdun, construction pit

It was a stormy sky over Verdun today, as you see in this painting of an auto-shop back lot I painted a thin layer of yellow ochre, then applied mixes of indo blue (PB60), dark magenta (PV55), and burnt yellow ochre (PR101) to create the cloud shapes, with a dab of phthalo blue or green here and there (PB15, PG7). 

Stormy sky Verdun auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

The giant construction pit that filled with water, I called it Lake Verdun, has been mostly drained, pumps are working over time to get the water onto the sidewalk and into drainage openings. You see some of the water on the right, and mounds of earth on the left, with a long factory-turned condo in the background. 

Lake Verdun horizontal warehouse condos, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Same location, a yellow-ochre (PY43) construction crane hovering over the site. By the looks of it, this is a massive construction project, like 5 x 5 city blocks! Its supposed to become a mix of housing and shops, so a little village. 

Verdun crane, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026 

Bike ride through a few cool neighborhoods

More like ride through a few hot neighborhoods today, it was muggy and humid in Montreal. This scene is down in st Henri, looking at one of the many red-brick triplex condos. On the left side was signage for an old laundry mat called King, but I changed the sign to be my initials and the year. It took a while to build up the structure, washes and texturing for this painting, and it came together with the final details on the balcony, roof tiles and bricks. 

Corner triplex old laundry mat, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, August 2026

Another scene from st Henri,  I was drawn tot he tree and found a good angle on it standing near the big grocery store corner. To do the tree, I made a wash of green plus yellow (PBk31 + PY184), then filled in yellow on the bottom with black on the top (PBk6). When dried, I applied a greenish black over top, and mixed umber (PBr7) with magenta (PV55) to make the trunk colour. It reminded me of the trees Van Gogh painted in southern France. That is Mount Royal visible in the background. 

Van Gogh tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

I needed the previous painting to dry a bit before applying the texturing, so I did this one looking east towards the big IGA grocery store, changed to PJD, and the main street which is Notre Dame street. 

PJD grocery, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Curio Folio: Side toaster

 I tested out my first product the other day, as a member of the Association of Retail Sales Evaluation club. I just received a new test product.... since they wont allow photos of the products, which are not on the market yet, I made a painting instead. The latest test-product was the side toaster. Its just like a regular toaster with two slots and a switch, but the openings are engineered on the side of the device. In this manner, the toast will jump out directly on your plate without the need for you to touch hot toast. Because of gravity, its less likely to get stuck too. I found the product to work well, and after some practice and fine-tuning, I managed to get the toast to land on the plate and not slide off onto the floor. Another neat feature they added, is a 'paper shredder' mode, where you can feed documents into it for destruction, which are then turned to ash. Brilliant. 

Curio Folio: Side toaster, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, August 2026

MIsc paintings summer 2026

Here are a few paintings from the past while, the first a scene of dirt bags in the Reno Depot parking lot on a sunny day. One palette was in shadow, the other in light. 

Dirt bags sun shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

A scene of the iconic red-brick chimney next to the Lachine canal, with converted factory condos on the left side. 

Canal condo factory stack, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Two buoys green and orange, with some ducks swimming past on the Lachine canal. Some graffiti adorned the sides of the canal. 

Canal ducks buoys, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

 

Summer scenes Lachine canal factory shadows

Getting down to the Lachine canal by bike, here is a scene I have done several times before, its the billboard next to a highway overpass. The canal is in the foreground at the bottom. A fleck of black paint landed in the sky so I turned it into a flock of birds. 

Billboard canal overpass, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

A horizontal composition of the canal and bike path (bottom left), with some long shadows from trees behind me. Across the canal, cars crawled along st Patrick street. 

Canal summer shadows, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Usually I see these factories all closed up, but today I caught them still open briefly. You see the garage door open a little with mysterious stuff inside. The facade looked like an angry elephant! 

Canal factory open vertical, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

I really thought this one was derelict judging by the amount of rust, but today it was humming and whirring, a giant cylinder was in operation doing something important. A van pulled out and they place closed up. 

Canal factory open horizontal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026 

Sundown on the data center

Our neighborhood has its very own data center down on st Jacques street. Maybe that is where my blog exists? Who knows. In this view, I tried to show the wide, flower-filled ditch (moat?) that encircles the center, with interesting trees backlit by a setting sun. The center is composed onto the right edge. 

Sundown on the data center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

A security guard was taking a break, sitting in the shade and looking at a cellphone. I was standing up on a small hill that separates the center from st Jacques street. Where I was standing is completely open to the public, like a small grassy expanse. The guard was behind a tall fence, that I omitted from these paintings.  

Security break data center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

The structure is a confusing array of various facades and panelling. The building was probably something else beforehand, and it was retrofitted to be a data center. Its a lot smaller than the ones we see on the news now-a-days. 

Data center puzzle, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Dirt bags in the parking lot

Down at the RENO+ at the end of Harley street, I caught this view of the facade with colourful bags of dirt stacked up in the foreground. The yellow facade was done with a grey-blue under-painting, with a layer of bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) on top. 

Dirt bags yellow storefront, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Another painting from the same location, composed on a horizontal, shows stacks of dirt bags in shadow from surrounding trees. A few cars and a professional building can be seen in the background. 

Dirt bags parking lot horizontal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026

Its  the same location looking left towards the greenhouse area, tree shadows were falling over a small berm of grass onto the stacked bags. Dirt bags have never looked so good in a painting! 

Dirt bags parking lot vaertical,watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2026